Alternate Target
by jpstar57
Summary: What if Mac wasn't Coster's target.
1. Chapter 1

_**Alternate Target**_

_**Chapter 1**_

**Summary:** What if Mac wasn't Coster's target

**Disclaimer:** I don't own what DPB, CBS & Paramount & NBC have copyright on. I only went left as they went right.

**Spoilers:** The Stalker

**Pairings: **Mac & Harm, Traci & John Marshall, Jack Keeter & Meghan O'Hara, Sydney & AJ, Loren & Tuna (Dave Medwick), Diane & Bruce Carmichael

March 17, 1998

1830 hours Local

Apartment in Georgetown, DC, NW

As she walked into her 3rd floor apartment she reached for the light switch just inside the door buck. She dropped her keys at their usual place onto the table by the door. She went to the back of her sofa and dropped her overcoat and cover over the back and her briefcase on the floor at the end table. She kicked off her regulation pumps, unbuttoned her uniform coat and undid her tie, collar and a couple of buttons down. She entered the bedroom and shucked the uniform coat. She untucked her uniform shirt and unzipped her skirt and let it drop to the floor. She went into her bathroom and used the toilet. As she sat on the bowl she undid the French braid that held her long hair in a regulation coif and rolled her thigh band hose down from each leg. She picked up her black lace panties from her ankles and dropped with the stockings into her hamper followed by her uniform shirt. She reached behind to unclasp and take off her matching black lace bra. She hung the bra on the coat hook mounted behind the bathroom door. She stood in front of the full length mirror and admired her nude form and stretched to release the tension of the day. Being that she lived alone, she strode nude back into her bedroom. She picked up her skirt and uniform coat and hung them neatly on the dressing chair, knowing that she would be wearing them tomorrow. She turned away and thinking that it was the easing of the tension of the day she was starting to feel tired and sleepy. She readily pulled the flowered pattern duvet, blanket and sheet down and crawled under the covers. Before she drifted completely off to sleep she looked out to the living room saying to herself, "Oh darn it, I didn't turn off the light." Even with that, she succumbed to the sleepy feeling and fell into a deep slumber.

About an hour later three men used a key and entered her apartment uninvited. They were wearing matching coveralls, black ball caps, 3-mil black latex gloves. One wore a full fanny pack and carried a medium sized duffel bag bulging with material. Another pulled a larger empty duffel bag with a stiff frame, retractable handle and wheels in behind him. As they entered the apartment, the one with the full duffel bag took out a gas meter and after reading it said, "The gas is dissipated." He went over to the wall vent in the bedroom and removed the grill. He pulled out the gas tank with an electronic valve and put them into his duffel bag after he emptied the duffel bag of its contents onto the floor. The contents consisted of a medium sized yellow Nerf ® ball, a swagger stick with a long leather thong attached to each end, 2 large rolls of 3" white surgical tape, 1 roll of 1-inch clear derma tape, a package of 4 inch wide moleskin bandages, a few rolls of brown sizzle twine and a few 1,000 feet rolls of 4 inch clear stretch wrap with a wrapping handle.

The man went into his fanny pack and took out a syringe and a vial of phenobarbital. He expertly filled the syringe and injected the barbiturate into the top of her left ass cheek. He wasn't as careful as he thought when he recapped the syringe.

He took a pen light, bent down to be level with her sideways turned face, opened and shined the light in each of her eyes and checked her pupils. He saw that they remained fixed and dilated and said, "Okay, the bitch is out for a while. Let's get to work and wrap her up."

They pulled the covers the rest of the way from atop her, exposing her nude body to their gaze and turned her over onto her back. The one who injected her opened a steri-pack containing a nasal oxygen tube and expertly threaded one end through her nose passed her nasal passages and down to her throat leaving a long end extending from her nose. They opened her mouth and inserted the Nerf ® ball so that it completely filled her oral cavity. They held her jaw and lips closed and taped a couple of strips of moleskin bandages across her lips. Then using the roll of white tape, they completely wrapped the lower half of her face from under her nose to under her chin. They wrapped more tape vertically from under her chin across the top of head over her ears several times. One took the roll of clear medical tape and tearing off some strips taped her eyelids closed.

They turned her over and crossed her wrists at the small of her back. One placed the swagger stick along her spine. He tied one leather thong, around the vertical axis of the wrist cross. He tied the other leather thong tightly but not contrictingly around her neck. Then another wrapped the surgical tape around both axis of the wrist cross. After her wrists were taped together, they closed her hands into fists and wrapped them with the white tape. While they were doing this, another was tying her legs. He took her left leg, pulled it against the back of her left thigh, and tied the ankle to the thigh. Then he did the right one the same way. They wound some tape from her wrist cross to down between her legs so that there was a double strip of tape around the top each thigh on either side of her pubic mound. This was done to hold her bound hands to the small of her back. They wrapped each of her feet the same way of her fists. They took an oxygen mask, threaded the nasal tube through the hole, attached it to the front of her face and pulled the elastic band around to the back of her head tightening the band to secure the mask firmly over her nose and mouth. They took up the roll of stretch wrap and completely wrapped, mummifying, her head, leaving her long hair dangling from under the wrap at the nape of her neck. They lifted her up on the bed so that she was kneeling on her kneecaps with her thighs spread. As one held her up the other two wrapped her torso completely with the stretch wrap. The left her well-endowed breasts exposed as they crisscrossed the wrap over her shoulders and between the breasts. They turned her over onto her front and pulled her body so that her hips went to the edge of the bed. As one held her up by her kneecaps the other two wrapped her legs and the rest of her body.

They finished wrapping her and moved her into the middle of the bed and laid her on her side. They positioned the large duffel bag on its side open behind her. They rolled her over so that she went into the duffel back lying face up. They attached a small oxygen tank to the nasal tube, placed it on one side of her in the bag. They adjusted her body so that she was completely in the duffel bag and zipped it closed over her.

"That tank is good for about 4 hours; just enough time for us to get to the cabin. If she wakes up, the way she's wrapped, she won't be able to move."

They lowered the bag with her bound, gagged and wrapped body therein onto the floor. They did a cursory check of the bedroom to ensure they didn't leave any trace of them behind and left the apartment. They avoided the main elevator and carried the duffel bag down the back staircase and deposited it into the back of a black panel van. They drove away into the night.

They didn't know that they left one item behind in the apartment.

March 24, 1998

1030 Local Time

JAG Headquarters,

Washington Navy Yard, SE

Washington, DC

Secret Service Agent Meghan O'Hara walked up the steps of JAG Headquarters and into the lobby. She was not a happy woman. She showed her service credentials as she spoke with the Marine corporal on duty at the reception desk. "I'd like to see Admiral Chegwidden please."

The corporal barely resisted the urge to raise an eyebrow in question as she asked, "Do you have an appointment, agent?"

"No I don't, but I have a warrant." She pulled a slip of a folded blue bound document from the inner pocket of her jacket. She didn't need to unfold it.

"Let me call up to his yeoman, Agent O'Hara." The corporal picked the phone up a spoke with, "Petty Officer Tiner. We have an Agent O'Hara with a warrant that needs to speak with Admiral Chegwidden. ~ Yes I'll send her up. Thank you"

As Meghan received the visitor's pass, the corporal asked, "Do you need an escort Agent O'Hara?"

"No I know the way," She said as she walked to the elevator.

As she exited on the 3rd floor, she ran into "Sarah!"

Major Sarah Mackenzie turned and smiled as she saw her cousin, "Meghan, what are you doing here?"

"I'm here to see Admiral Chegwidden. Loren hasn't been seen in over a week."

"Well let's go speak with the admiral. He may be able to shed some light on where she is," Sarah said in reassurance to her cousin.

The two women walked together to Chegwidden's office. Tiner announced them and after the usual knock and enter Meghan went up to the front of AJ's desk and without preamble asked, "Where is my sister?"

AJ was taken aback for a bit. He was going to reprimand Meghan, but he saw the look of concern mixed with fear on her face. He answered, "First of all have a seat, both of you. I assigned Lt. Singer TAD for a month to Hawaii. I gave her the week to get her personal affairs in order for the assignment."

"Yeah she told me the same thing in the email she sent me, which I read while I was on a trip with President Bartlett. She also said that she wasn't due to fly out until tomorrow and wanted to have dinner with me before she went. After I came home yesterday, I went to her apartment to do that. I found that she wasn't there and that she hadn't even started packing."

"How do know that?"

"Her empty suit cases were still in her closet, her uniform was still on the dressing chair and her dirty laundry was still in her hamper. The bed looked like it hadn't been slept in for a while. And I found this."

She took an evidence bag that contained a syringe cap.

"Where did that come from?"

"I don't know. It was on the floor between her nightstand and her bed. Loren hates needles. I had it tested at our headquarters' lab. It had a trace of phenobarbital in it. My gut tells me that Loren's been kidnapped."

"Have you called the police?" Sarah asked.

"No not yet. I came here first to see if anyone knew anything."

"Well even though that syringe cap is very suspicious to you, it's not to the DC Police. They won't act based solely on that and your gut feeling. We need to call someone who will act," AJ said as he picked the phone up. He saw the worry and stress that Meghan was demonstrating. That 's what caused him to act.

Sarah and Meghan heard his side of the phone conversation as she said, "Yes Agent John Marshall please. ~ John? I have a case of a possible missing lieutenant. ~ Yes, one of mine, Loren Singer. ~ Her sister Meghan is here, and she is not happy. Loren wasn't home when Meghan went to meet her as planned. ~ No she hasn't called the police yet. ~ There's not enough to go on besides a syringe cap with traces of a barbiturate and her gut feeling. ~ Okay thanks Meghan will be here in Major Mackenzie's office."

"He'll be right over with one of his team members a new member, Kate Larkin" AJ replied to their questioning faces.

"Oh yeah I know of her. I replaced her on POTUS' detail. She took a bullet in the shoulder for Bartlett when he was shot last year," Meghan replied.

Well let's see what his investigation brings. Major, I know you want to help find your cousin and since you just wrapped up your latest trial with Mr. Rabb, you and your fiancé can assist in the investigation, carry on."

"Thank you, sir," Sarah said as she braced to a quick attention before she and Meghan turned and walked out of the office.

They stopped at Lt. Commander Harmon Rabb's office. Sarah knocked on the closed door. Harm looked up, smiled and beckoned her to come in. Sarah only went in enough to tell him, "Get it in gear Hammer. We have a new case. Come on into my office."

Sarah waited for Harm to exit as they walked into her office together. Harm was delighted to see Meghan as they shared a familial embrace.

"So, what's up?" Harm asked as they settled into their chairs.

"Loren's missing," Sarah began and explained the rest of Meghan's suspicions.

"So, who are we getting to look for her?" Harm asked.

"NCIS. John Marshall is coming down the street with Kate Larkin. We'll figure out what to do after we speak with them," Sarah explained.

As the three waited they chatted about stuff in general, just to ease Meghan's tension.

"You hear from Keeter lately Meghan?" Harm asked.

"Yeah, he's working with Bruce Carmichael in Navy Intelligence."

"So, he finally gave up flying for that three-letter agency and settled down to do some honest work," Harm joked.

"Yeah after that cluster fuck job you two did in Cuba a few years ago, he finally agreed to go work at the Puzzle Palace."

Sarah and Harm shared a laugh as there was a knock on her office door. Harm got up to let NCIS Special Agents Kathryn 'Kate' Larkin & John Marshall.

After Sarah waved them in, John asked, "So what do we have?"

"My sister Lt. Loren Singer is missing. I found this (She showed the syringe cover.) in her apartment. I think she's been kidnapped."

"So, based on that, you're thinking kidnapping why?" Kate asked.

"We planned to have dinner today before she left on her TAD to Hawaii. Also, she knew she was going, and her bags still weren't packed," Meghan explained patiently.

"Okay I can roll with that. No offence, but I had to ask," Kate explained.

"No offence taken. So, what do we do next?"

"Let's go to her apartment with our MCRT team. That's a possible crime scene. We'll see what we can find," John explained.

They all agreed as they all left the office.

Same time

Cabin in the Appalachian Mountains, WV

Loren Singer was hung from a rafter in a musty smelling room. She had no idea where she was and she was trembling from the fear of the unknown. He wrists were still crossed at the small of her back, but now they were tied with rope. She felt that there were yards of rope wrapped around her. Her arms were tied to her body at three points, around her waist, and above and below her breasts. The ropes that suspended her were tied to the waist ropes, the ropes tied around her breasts and a harness of ropes tied behind her shoulders.

Her legs were tied together unbent at the ankles and above and below her knee joints. There was a rope going down from her neck to her upper knee ropes that was pulled so that her feet were suspended off the floor.

She was still gagged and rendered sightless, but this time the gag was a rubber ball attached to a webbed strap head harness that also had a padded blindfold attached to it. She was drooling uncontrollably from the ball gag. She had been hung like this for a long part of the week after she'd been taken from her apartment.

When they arrived at the cabin seven days ago, the man in charge paid his two accomplices saying, "I'll see you guys in the city later."

One replied with a sneer, "Thanks, enjoy your unwrapping?"

"Uh huh," was he said as he walked them to the door and watched them drive away. After he closed and locked the door, he went to the middle of the one room cabin and moved a low table from in front of a couch. He removed the rug which revealed a trap door in the floor which he pulled open. He brought the duffel bag over to the trapdoor and hooked the handle to a hook coming from a block & tackle hanging from the ceiling. He lowered the bag down to the basement floor and climbed down a ladder after it. He opened the bag to extract his victim. He was glad to see that she was still breathing. He set about to unwrap her body.

Loren stayed asleep long enough for him to tie her into the configuration she was in now. As he set about tying her, he muttered to himself, "This will soften her up for all the other activities I have planned, since I saw her at that JAG Office; just like the other four bitches that were here."

Now he had come back to the cabin for the weekend. He sat and looked at Loren in her torturous state. After a while he got up and went to put Loren into another barbaric position.

As he reached her he bent down near Loren's ear to whisper, "Now that you're softened up, it's time to teach you who's boss."

1315 Local Time

Loren's Apartment

Georgetown, NW

The four friends from JAG met up with John's NCIS Major Case Response Team (MCRT). They went about tossing the bedroom. When they went in, they saw that the bedcovers had been pulled back up but not as neatly as Loren usually left them as she learned in the Naval Academy.

They pulled the bedcovers off the bed and started to examine the fitted sheet. Kate shone an ultraviolet light on the sheet and asked Meghan, "Is Loren sexually active?"

"With only one guy. Her boyfriend Dave Medwick, who's an aviator on the Enterprise. He's currently deployed since the New Year."

"Yeah here's her latest letter to him," Agent Michaela "Mike" Quinn said holding up a stack of stationary from the writing desk in the corner.

"It figures it's been that long. There's no indication of fluids on the sheet," Kate said as she started to lift the pillows up. "Hello what's this?" she was looking at a piece of bandage backing about 4 inches wide. She had Mike photograph it before she picked it up with her tweezers and put it into an evidence back. She looked round the room before she asked, "See if there is a box of this type of bandage in the bathroom shelf or in the medicine cabinet."

John went into the bathroom to look. He came out saying, "Nothing like that in here." He also checked the kitchen cabinet with the same negative results.

Examining the backing he said, "That's wide enough to cover from your chin to under your nose."

"Yeah, that's what worries me. Where's Turk with that warrant. We need to see the building's security videos?"

At that they heard Brian Turgue come in saying, "You ask and I deliver." He handed the signed search warrant to John.

"Okay Turk, you Harm and I will look at the video. Ladies I'll leave the rest up here to you," John said as the guys walked out of the apartment.

Kate continued scanning the bed with the UV light on the sheet. As she got to the edge she said, "I think I got something. Mike go and check the bathroom waste basket. See if there are used pads or tampons in there."

"What do you have?" Sarah asked.

"I found indications of fluids at the edge of the bed. If what I suspect is right, they should have been in the middle of the sheet not the edge."

Mike came out of the bathroom showing a used tampon in an evidence bag. "She was on her period. This was in the waste basket."

"I thought so. Come look here at the edge of the bed." When Meghan and Mike looked Kate used the UV light and pointed saying, "See how the fluids are here. Whoever took her, pulled her or held her off the bed right here."

Meanwhile the men were in the 1st floor Security room looking at the building's video surveillance system. "Good thing these guys have hall cameras on every floor and they back up their system every week on these flash drives," John was saying indicating the stack on the Surveillance desk. They started looking at the videos from a week ago, the last day Loren was seen at JAG Headquarters, along with the operator of the system.

"Okay we have Loren arriving at her apartment at 1830. Okay fast forward a little bit." The operator went forward about an hour until Harm said, "Stop!" They saw three men enter the apartment with a key. "Okay let's see when they came out." They went forward for about another hour until John said, "Okay stop. Look at the large duffle back on wheels. It looks a little more firmly packed than when they went in with it." They went back to the timestamp of the men's entry and saw what John was talking about as the sides of the duffle bag were sagging in when it was wheeled into the apartment and was noticeably fuller when it was wheeled out.

"That's how they got her out without anyone noticing. Can we see the cameras covering the exits?" The operator accommodated the request as they viewed the camera covering the service exit at the rear of the apartment building. "They saw brief views of the three men, but not their faces as they were obscured under ballcap bills as their heads were purposely held down from the camera's range. They were about to turn away in disappointment when Harm exclaimed, "Wait a minute; back up a bit." The operator did so until Harm said, "Stop, now go forward in slow motion." The video advance until Harm said, "Okay stop!" He pointed to the full face on the screen, "I know that guy."

"Who is he?" Turk asked."

"He's a DC Police lieutenant named Coster."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Alternate Target**_

_**Chapter 2**_

March 24, 1998

1630 Local Time

Cabin in the Appalachian Mountains, WV

A month ago, Coster had been at JAG Headquarters to apprehend a suspect named Roscoe Martin in the stabbing and murder of a Vietnamese man. The suspect was a paralyzed veteran who spotted the victim and remembered him as the commander of his old Vietnamese prison camp on a US street, and stabbed him. After he arrested Martin, Coster had gone back to hang around JAG Headquarters to photograph and stalk Loren as she went about her daily business. He saw that she was single and living alone. He had no idea that Loren was also Meghan's twin or that Meghan was in law enforcement.

Now he had Loren suspended on a t-shaped cross. Her shoulders were over the top with her wrists handcuffed behind her with the chain bolted to the pillar on the front side of the cross. Her ankles were buckled into 12-inch rods protruding from the sides of the cross. Her long hair was braided with a cord and the cord was tied into an eyebolt on the back of the cross forcing her head to be pulled back so that she was staring at the ceiling. No that she could see the ceiling as the head harness with the blindfold was left on with a leather collar buckled around her long neck. As she hung on the cross, all her attributes were made totally exposed to his gaze.

Coster was lecturing her in a soliloquy telling her what was demanded of her. He punctuated every sentence with a hard strike from the thin leather strap he was using to whip her across her thighs and hips and her breasts. Each strike left long red welts on her body.

All Loren could do was tremble in fear from the next blow and scream with each successive blow. Even though she was not understood because of the gag, she begged him to stop abusing her.

Coster went on like this for an hour. He only stopped when he realized Loren wasn't reacting to the whipping as she had passed out.

"Screw this, I'll finish her off tomorrow," he said as he turned and climbed back up the ladder. He closed the trapdoor. He didn't bother to pull the rug back over the door. He just pulled the table close to the couch and sat down, put his feet up and had a beer.

Same Time

Loren's Apartment

After Harm told John on how he knew Coster, John was telling Harm, "You and Mac go back to JAG with Meghan and tell AJ what we found. My team and I will put a full court investigation on Lt. Coster. But we have to do it quietly. Otherwise he'll get suspicious and God forbid, kill Loren to hide his crime."

"How are you going to do that?" Harm asked.

Well we'll start by doing a computer check on his background including his bank accounts and any real estate he may own. It's a sure bet he's not keeping Loren in his primary residence. He has to have a cabin or another place, like an abandoned warehouse of factory, where he can hold her without attracting attention."

The NCIS team went back to their office and started their investigation tasks. While Kate and Mike started the computer search computer search for any of Coster's assets, John and Turk looked up Coster's police records.

"He's assigned to DC Metro's major case squad. They investigate all the homicide and other violent crime, including human trafficking. How are we going to make anything stick with this guy? As a LEO he has to know how to cover his tracks," Turk lamented.

"Well we'll just have to keep our eye on him," John replied. He continued as he asked, "Do we have any satellite vehicle trackers?"

"You mean the 007 gadgets you're so fond of that you got from Sevalis?"

"Yeah we could use one on Coster's vehicle. The only problem is we don't know if he uses his PD or his personal vehicle to travel to where he has Loren. You know the police clerks always want to verify every mile on their company cars."

So that leads us to believe that he'll use his personal vehicle. Do we have his address?" He called out to Kate & Mike.

"Yeah boss here it is," Mike said handing over a slip of note paper.

"C'mon Turk let's see if the good lieutenant is at home," John said as he got up to walk to the elevator. Turk was just able to catch him before the doors closed.

John and Turk went to Coster's address which was in the Manor Park section of DC. They saw that he lived in a private house with his driveway off an alley in the rear of the house. John drove up the alley and saw that there was a car with DC Police license plates parked in Coster's parking place.

"There's his department vehicle now what boss?" Turk asked.

"Now we set up a stakeout."

"Aren't you afraid that he'll spot one? As a cop he has to have been on one or more in his illustrious career"

"Not if we use the apartment for rent in the house across the street." John said pointing across the street at the 'Apartment for Rent' sign posted in the 1st floor window. "Let's check it out"

Their ring of the doorbell was met by a pleasant elderly lady named Mrs. James who after they showed their credentials, she showed them the upstairs apartment.

"After my husband Dennis passed away, I just had my children divide the house and rent the upstairs. My old legs just won't let me go up and down as I used to. You can park your cars in the spot behind the house."

"Thank you, ma'am, a couple of young ladies that work for us will move in tomorrow. We only need it for a week as they're both new to town and need a place to stay until they get more permanently situated. Who knows, one may decide to stay here."

Turk smirked as listened to John pile it on for the old lady. They liked that the apartment came furnished with a couple of twin beds. They left deciding that there was nothing that they could do until they saw when Coster came home.

March 25, 1998

0700 Local Time

Cabin in the Appalachian Mountains, WV

Coster had tortured Loren for the better part of the previous day and slept overnight in the couch's fold out bed. He needed to get back to DC and do some "police work". Before he left, he fixed Loren on the cross so that she would not strangle from being crucified. He installed a thick wooden dowel into the beam of the cross right at the junction of Loren's thighs. He had to push her up a bit to install it so that when she settled, her entire body weight rested painfully on her pubic bone as it pressed onto the dowel. To give her a bit of comfort, he untied her hair from its restraints so that it lolled forward so that her chin rested on her chest.

"Well it's ta-ta for now bitch. I'll see you next weekend," he taunted before he climbed up the ladder and shut the trap door.

Underneath her blindfold Loren despaired at being left alone in this condition for what she thought would be seven days.

1200 Local Time

Coster's Residence

Manor Park, NE& around DC Metro

Kate & Mike arrived at the rented apartment early that morning. They set up their equipment which consisted of mounted binoculars and a video recording camera at the window overlooking Coster's place. They saw him arrive home about 0930 hours. He left in his police vehicle about an hour after that. Now John's team were tailing him in four separate cars as he went about his "police work".

They had to wait outside his precinct as he was in there for a while. Then they tailed him around DC as he spoke with snitches, suspects and the like. They watched him as he went into a diner to get his meal. After that Coster went back to his precinct. Shortly after that he went home.

John followed him well back so that he couldn't spot the tail. When he saw Coster park his car, he went to park his behind the house where they rented the apartment. As he entered the apartment, he asked Kate & Mike, "Were you able to plant the tracker on his personal vehicle?"

"Yeah boss we did before we joined you for the pursuit work."

"Now all we can do is wait. What did your computer search of his assets give you?"

"Not much except that he lives a financially clean life. No unusual bank deposits or unusual real estate holdings."

"Any relatives leave him anything?"

"Not that we could see. Though when we went into the precinct under the pretense of investigating Roscoe Martin being shot in Harm's loft last week, we saw that Coster had a photo on his desk of him holding up his latest kill, a deer, in front of a cabin. I didn't want to ask where the cabin was. Remember there were three men in Loren's apartment. The other two might also be cops."

"Good thinking," John affirmed. "We'll just have to wait to see where he goes with his personal car.

March 28, 1998

0800 Local Time

NCIS Stakeout Apartment

Manor Park

Unfortunately for them and Loren, Coster didn't go anywhere but to and from work in his PD car for the rest of the week. It wasn't until Saturday morning when Coster decided to drive away in his personal car.

The four team members had set themselves up to stay in the apartment for the duration of the wait. Three of them were dozing on and off while one manned the window. It was during her shift watch out the window when Kate, "Chop, chop boys and girls we have movement of the personal car."

That woke everyone up. John instructed, "So let's not make haste guys. Keep our distance and let the tracker do the work."

The team set out in one car with Mike sitting 'shotgun' monitoring the receiver letting them know Coster direction, following about a mile behind him. They drove for about three hours out of DC along IS 68 through western Maryland into West Virginia. Than they took IS 79 south to exit at Clarksburg. It was another twenty minutes until they saw that Coster had stopped. They drove along the road until they passed a road with a chain across with a sign saying "Private Property".

As they drove on Mike instructed, "Stop go back."

John obliged as he did the U-turn. He stopped at the chained road.

Turk looked out and said, "Those tire tracks look fresh. This must be the place."

"Okay team let's do this quietly. We'll advance up the road until we see the cabin. Then we'll fan out and advance on it from all four sides. Let's do a comms check."

After the check they walked slowly up the road with their weapons drawn. About 200 yards up the road they spotted the cabin with Coster's car parked in front. They fanned out through the woods as planed and approached the cabin from four sides.

John got to window and peaked inside. He said over the radio, "Trapdoor in the floor is open but no Coster. I'm going to knock on the door. Cover me."

John went and knocked on the front door very loudly. He didn't want to give away that he was law enforcement as he knew Coster would use Loren as a shield.

He waited beside the door out of sight from the window. When Coster opened the door to peak out, John rushed forward and put his shoulder to the door. He was able to get it open fully and knock Coster to the floor. He went up to the dirty cop, knelt with one knee on his chest and put his weapon in his face saying, "Where is she?"

"Where is who? You're trespassing fella. I'm a DC Cop," Coster tried ineffectually to intimidate John. By that time the other three team members had rushed in.

"Kate, Mike check down the trapdoor," John instructed.

As the two women went down the ladder John and Turk stood Coster up, cuffed him and sat him on the couch.

John almost despaired when he heard Mike call frantically, "Boss! Down Here!"

When John reached the bottom of the ladder and saw the sight in front of him, he let out, "Oh my God!"

Loren was hung on the cross as Coster left he earlier in the week, but without the dowel at her pubis. There was a stream of saliva dripping from around the ball between her lips down between her breasts and forming a puddle on the floor under her crucified form. He couldn't tell if she was breathing or not as she was totally unresponsive as Mike and Kate were worked frantically to get the head harness off her. John bent to unbuckle the straps at her ankles. He looked and sighed with relief as he saw that the handcuffs were the standard police issued Smith &Wesson. He got his key out and set Loren's wrists free. At that her body went limp as she slid bonelessly down the cross pillar toward the floor. It was all the three agents could do to catch her to prevent further injury. It was only when they had her lying on the floor that they managed to get the head harness completely unbuckled. When they pulled the ball from her mouth with an audible pop Loren let out a moan of relief.

"She's breathing, thank God," Kate said as she sat her up.

They were all horrified to see the whip marks on her body. Kate went to gently remove the clear strips of Derma tape keeping Loren's eyes closed, which Coster had left in place since the abduction from her apartment. John yelled up to the floor above, "Turk use the satellite phone and get us a Lifeline chopper here. Loren's breathing, but she's in pretty bad shape." Turning to his other two colleagues he instructed, "Keep an eye on her. I'm going up to help Turk watch Coster. I'll get some water down here for her."

As John reached the top, Turk had finished his call and was guarding Coster. John explained, "Loren was hung on a cross and whipped." He was relieved to see a Thermos cooler in one corner. He opened it to see that were many water bottles. He took three out and going to the trapdoor called out, "Kate, Mike catch this water."

Kate went to get the water and instructed, "Get me a blanket down here."

After John got the blanket from atop the couch and threw it down, the ladies used it to cover Loren's nudity and started giving some water to Loren a sip at a time.

The water had its usual beneficial effect. As Loren became more and more alert, she was saying one word over and over, "Why?"


	3. Chapter 3

_**Alternate Target**_

_**Epilogue**_

March 29, 1998

Cabin in the Appalachian Mountains, WV

After Loren had become more and more alert, they needed to get clothing on her. Kate was Loren's size and she went to her go bag in the NCIS car's trunk and retrieved her fresh set of clothing which included underwear, jeans, an NCIS sweatshirt, socks and running shoes. Loren was so distraught that she was trembling and continuously crying. Mike & Kate had to help her put the clothes on and tie the shoelaces.

Mike & Kate kept alternately soothing and caressing her cheeks with "It's okay Loren. It's all over. You'll be home writing letters to David soon."

While they were waiting for the Lifeline helicopter to come, Loren expressed her great desire to get out of the basement to see the first daylight since she before she was abducted. But they had problems getting Loren up from the basement. Loren had developed dropped foot syndrome from her feet being suspended, or bound with them extended. The nerves had gone into a state of atrophy from being in that state. She was unable to stand or walk without assistance. There was no way she could climb up the ladder on her own and they were not about to use any rope to hoist her up. To get Loren up the ladder from the basement, John hoisted her onto his shoulder in a fireman's carry.

"Just hold onto the back of my belt Loren."

He climbed up the ladder high enough for Loren to sit on the edge of the trapdoor opening. When John climbed the rest of the way up, he and Turk seat carried her over to the couch and had her lie down. Turk had relegated Coster to sit cuffed to one of the dining chairs.

While they waited, John called the local sheriff's office to follow regulations of getting the local LEOs involved. When the sheriff showed up, John cautioned the, "He's a DC Detective. We're going to charge him with kidnapping and transporting his victim, Navy Lt. Singer here, over state lines among other charges. Right now, we're going to get Lt. Singer to the hospital.

When the helicopter landed, they assisted in getting Loren into the chopper. Kate went along with her. They flew directly to Bethesda.

When the chopper left, John instructed the sheriff's deputies to quarantine the cabin. "After we secure a warrant, we're coming back to do a crime scene examination. No one goes in or touches anything." To secure that, John put log numbered Crime Scene seals on the doors and windows' backing that up with timestamped photos of each of the seals and recording the seal numbers in their log books.

"Yes sir," the deputy acknowledged.

On the way back to DC John drove with Mike as shotgun with Turk in back with a cuffed Coster.

March 31, 1998

1230 Local Time

UMMC, Bethesda, MD

The team's investigation into Coster and the search & examination of the cabin and his apartment showed that he had done this before to four other women, as he mentioned to Loren. Each one was between 20 and 30 years old. Each time when he tired of them, he got them addicted to heroin and had them wrapped and shipped out to pimps in Central and South America. Being a detective, he had connections via confidential informants to human traffickers. He was taking payoffs on the side from those traffickers to keep up his perverted hobby.

In her recorded deposition from her hospital bed, Loren stated that he mentioned four other girls on numerous occasions during her torture.

"How did you remember all that was going on and what he said?" Turk asked for the record.

"The Navy put me through its Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) School in Brunswick, Maine. It taught me to remember everything that occurs while I'm captured and/or tortured. That asshole Coster picked the wrong girl to act out his perverse and sadistic tendencies."

During her time at Bethesda, she went through physical therapy for her drop foot. She was fitted with braces that would keep her feet bent, even while she slept. Many nights she woke up with nightmares. The extended or forced sensory deprivation she endured resulted in extreme anxiety which caused, hallucinations, bizarre thoughts, temporary senselessness, and depression. Each time she woke from those nightmares she had to be reassured by the nursing staff that she was safe. She attended counseling for the depression and anxiety. For some perverse reason Coster did not sexually assault her. NCIS' head pathologist, Dr. Donald Mallard explained, "He said to the lieutenant that he wanted to soften her up with the torture. He needed her to give herself to him to avoid the punishment and pain of non-compliance."

Meghan took leave time from her duties at the Secret Service to stay with Loren in the hospital and after her discharge at her apartment.

At an attempt to possibly lighten his sentence, Coster copped a plea giving up his two accomplices and the network through which he trafficked his other victims. One accomplice was an EMT, who administered the barbiturate, the other was one of his drug snitches that helped him procure the other women that Coster kidnapped. They were arrested shortly after Coster gave them up. The subsequent investigation into them would be handled by the FBI, the DEA and the DC Metro Police.

It took six months for Coster to come to trial. In that time Loren had gone through extensive rehabilitation and counseling in DC and up at the farm that her friend Harm's Grandmother, Sarah Rabb owned; where there were no locked doors and Loren could come and go on the farm and the area as she pleased.

After the trial where Coster was found guilty of all the charges leveled against him which included kidnapping, assault, transporting a captive over state lines, human trafficking and many more charges too numerous to count, Loren went about with her cousin Sarah to plan her and Sarah's weddings.

It was a beautiful 1999 Memorial Day non-military double wedding ceremony at the Rabb Farm. Sarah's sister Diane Carmichael and Meghan were Maids of Honor that witnessed Sarah & Harm along with Loren & David take the vows to love, honor & cherish for as long as they all lived. Loren was the most appreciative of the "Long Lived" part.

_**The End**_


End file.
